Radio Atlantic

A lot of people are plagued by the feeling that society used to be better, that neighbors were more helpful, that strangers once talked to you. Some people channel that belief into political action, as in the Make America Great Again movement. A new study explains why the sense that people and the culture have gotten worse is a psychological illusion. This special episode features Julie Beck, the host of How to Talk to People. Subscribe and discover a full season of great episodes waiting for you! This episode was produced by Becca Rashid. Editing by Jocelyn Frank. Fact checked by Isabel Cristo. Engineering is by Rob Smierciak. The executive producer of Audio is Claudine Ebeid. The managing editor of Audio is Andrea Valdez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marriages today are much more flexible than they used to be. Women’s roles have changed. Gay marriage is legal. More and more people aren’t choosing marriage at all. And yet the American wedding has hardly changed at all. If anything, it keeps getting more elaborate, more luxe, more wedding-like. In this episode, we talk to Xochitl Gonzalez, who wrote a confessional for The Atlantic about her years as a luxury wedding planner, about why we keep perfecting on what is essentially a nineteenth- century artifact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For months, more than a thousand researchers and technology experts involved in creating artificial intelligence have been warning us that they’ve created something that may be dangerous. Something that might eventually lead humanity to become extinct. In this Radio Atlantic episode, The Atlantic’s executive editor, Adrienne LaFrance, and staff writer Charlie Warzel talk about how seriously we should take these warnings, and what else we might consider worrying about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A heat dome in Texas. Wildfire smoke polluting the air in the East and Midwest. The signs are everywhere that our children’s summers will look nothing like our own. In this episode we talk to the climate writer Emma Pattee about how hot is too hot to go outside, and what summer camps of the future will look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads a private army called the Wagner Group, attempted what many have called a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Technically, it failed. But the fact that he managed to challenge Putin and leave the leader shaken and panicky is profound. Atlantic staff writers Anne Applebaum and Tom Nichols explain this week’s wild turn of events in Russia and the door those events opened.  Further Reading: Tom Nichols: The Coup Is Over, but Putin Is in Trouble Anne Applebaum: Putin Is Caught in His Own Trap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we just too impatient for America’s famously leisurely national pastime? Hanna Rosin asks staff writer Mark Leibovich whether the changes MLB is making to baseball this summer could help him, and the rest of us, fall in love with baseball all over again. Interested in the changes baseball’s making? Read Mark’s article on how Moneyball broke baseball—and how the same people who broke it are back, trying to save it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court is about to issue a set of rulings on affirmative action in higher education. If it goes as expected, universities will no longer be allowed to consider race in admissions. In this episode of Radio Atlantic, host Hanna Rosin talks to Adam Harris, an Atlantic staff writer, who covers the issue and has written about the cases. They talk about how the backlash against affirmative action began almost as soon as the effort started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta spent long stretches of the past year talking to CNN’s then-CEO Chris Licht about his grand experiment to reset the cable giant as a venue more welcoming to Republicans. In a major profile of Licht, Alberta documented the many disasters along the way, culminating in Licht’s ouster from the network this week.  In this episode of Radio Atlantic, host Hanna Rosin talks to Alberta about the rise and fall of Licht, and what it means for the media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Politicians, pundits, and even the surgeon general have been highlighting the risks that social media poses to young people’s mental health. The problem is real—but is it as serious as those caused by cigarettes or drunk driving, and what can be done about it? Host Hanna Rosin talks to the Atlantic tech reporter Kaitlyn Tiffany about what the research actually shows regarding teens and social media.  “It creates this frustrating moment where legislators want to do something now. And I bet the surgeon general’s report will make that more intense. But the research isn’t quite caught up. In order to know what to do, you have to know more precisely what the problem is.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Hanna Rosin talks to Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg and staff writer Anne Applebaum about their trip to Ukraine, their interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, why continued American support is necessary, and why flagging attention doesn’t matter.  Applebaum, who has covered the war from start, clarifies the confusing but potentially critical recent developments. Background: Read Goldberg and Applebaum's latest article The Counteroffensive and see the battlefield drones and drone workshops they talk about in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now, we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Today we’re introducing Radio Atlantic, The Atlantic’s flagship podcast, with a new host: senior editor Hanna Rosin.  Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise using clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about how they think about certain ideas.  The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and help listeners be purposeful about how they unstick their minds. New episodes come out Thursdays starting May 25, wherever you find your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can memorials to tragedy in one country tell Americans about how to remember the legacy of slavery in the U.S.? Staff writer Clint Smith traveled to Germany to understand how Germany memorializes the Holocaust. He discusses what he saw and the perspectives he encountered with fellow staff writer Caitlin Dickerson, and explains why his experience of several German memorials makes the daunting task of memorializing slavery in the United States seem achievable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first episode of a new podcast from The Atlantic about a revolution undone. Subscribe to Holy Week: theatlantic.com/holyweek Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | Spotify The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s murder come to be the stitching used to tie together a narrative of victory? The week that followed his killing was one of the most fiery, disruptive, and revolutionary, and is nearly forgotten. Over the course of eight episodes, Holy Week brings forward the stories of the activists who turned heartbreak into action, families scorched by chaos, and politicians who worked to contain the grief. Seven days diverted the course of a social revolution and set the stage for modern clashes over voting rights, redlining, critical race theory, and the role of racial unrest in today’s post–George Floyd reckoning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy Week: The story of a revolution undone. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s murder come to be the stitching used to tie together a narrative of victory? The week that followed his killing was one of the most fiery, disruptive, and revolutionary, and is nearly forgotten. Over the course of eight episodes, Holy Week brings forward the stories of the activists who turned heartbreak into action, families scorched by chaos, and politicians who worked to contain the grief. Seven days diverted the course of a social revolution and set the stage for modern clashes over voting rights, redlining, critical race theory, and the role of racial unrest in today’s post–George Floyd reckoning. Subscribe and listen to all 8 episodes coming March 14: theatlantic.com/holyweek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Google and Microsoft releasing new AI tools, it feels like the future is now with artificial intelligence. But how transformative are products like ChatGPT? Should we be worried about their impact? Are they a new Skynet or just a new Clippy? Staff writers Charlie Warzel and Amanda Mull discuss. Charlie’s piece: Is This The Week AI Changed Everything? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices